1986 – Zonker.net

I’m not saying that Skylarking is the best album in the history of the universe, but I’m not not saying it either. Certainly it’s the finest album XTC have produced.

I know precisely when my love affair with XTC began, it was May 3rd, 1987 when MTV played the world premiere of “Dear God” on 120 Minutes. While not on the original pressings of Skylarking, Geffen slapped it on the US version and omitted “Mermaid Smiled” to make room.

Once I finally got my hands on a copy of the cassette, I played it as much as possible – it’s a miracle that the cassette lasted until I made the switch to CDs and was able to retire the poor thing.

Continue reading ““Skylarking” by XTC (No. 1)”

If Robyn Hitchcock hadn’t gone into music, perhaps he’d have become a novelist like his father. His penchant for storytelling shows through heavily in Element of Light.

Hitchcock has a pretty solid catalog of music as a solo artist, with his backing bands The Egyptians and The Venus 3, and (of course) with The Soft Boys. It took a lot of mulling before I decided on the ones that would make the top 100, and two things put Element of Light at the top of the stack – the music (obviously) and the stories.

Musically, Element of Light features some of my favorite Hitchcock compositions (and that’s saying quite a lot). But Element clearly features some of the most developed stories in his songs. Continue reading ““Element of Light” by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians (No. 7)”